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Video: Black U.S. Citizen Seeks Refugee Status in Canada

A U.S. citizen has argued before Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver that he should be granted refugee status over fears that he will be killed in his home country by police because he is black, reports the CBC.

Kyle Lydell Canty, 30, crossed into British Columbia's Lower Mainland in early September of 2015, telling border agents that he was in Canada to visit and take photographs, but once in Vancouver decided he would apply to remain as a refugee.

"I'm in fear of my life because I'm black," he told IRB member Ron Yamauchi in a hearing on October 23rd in Vancouver. "This is a well-founded fear."

Canty argues that black people are "being exterminated at an alarming rate" in the U.S. and included examples such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri and the death of Eric Garner in New York City at the hands of police.

Scanner audio captured an officer’s account of what happened at the scene, CWBChicago reports: “Ten people surrounded me, indicating that they had firearms. And one person pulled him away from me, holding his waist, indicating that he would use a firearm against me.”

There were so many police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Highway Patrol troopers that the court appearance had to be moved out of Justice Court to Judge John Larson’s Courtroom Number Three on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse.

The vehicle pursuit ended in the town of Kittitas where Deputy Thompson was backed up by Officer Benito Chavez. The suspect exited the vehicle and exchanged shots with the two law enforcement officers.

Sarah Wilson and her boyfriend were arrested during a stop in Chesapeake after officers allegedly found drugs in the 1996 Lexus the couple were driving. Police said they handcuffed Wilson and, while attempting to apprehend her boyfriend, 27-year-old Holden Medlin, he became combative and ran away from the scene.